Glades Oil Well? Unthinkable

May 11, 1993

Before anyone sends a ''Thank You'' note to the federal government for deciding to clean up the mess it made of the Florida Everglades, consider that the feds may soon allow an oil well in the ''River of Grass.''

Even while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers takes credit for a long-overdue plan to reclaim the Everglades, the federal Bureau of Land Management has given early indications that it favors a proposed Shell oil well in that same fragile ecosystem.

What a slam against an unparalleled natural resource that has duly hosted countless types of wildlife and tourists for decades.

Unfortunately, the Everglades began dying when the Army Corps built ditches, dikes, canals and levees to improve farm irrigation and flood protection in the 1950s.

And now that the federal government is preparing to spend about $1 billion to undo its own diking damage to the Everglades, this is no time to open up the area to an industry that could cause further damage.

Executives with Shell Western E & P say their plan to drill an 18,000-foot test well would do no harm to the marshlands. The company plans elaborate casings and berm systems to protect the area.

The National Park Service, however, has warned of water-contamination problems related to any drilling on the property, which is owned by Miccosukee Indians.

The proposed well would be 100 feet from a canal and 1,000 feet from a water-pumping station.

Oil speculators cannot guarantee that their operations would keep spills contained. During the past two decades, 163,000 gallons of crude oil has spilled in areas of South Florida other than the Everglades.

Unchecked, one gallon of petroleum can taint a million gallons of drinking water. And a hurricane could make short work of any containment plans.

On the other end of Florida, Gov. Lawton Chiles wisely called two years ago for an oil-well ban extending 100 miles into the Gulf of Mexico.

But the Bush administration thumbed its nose at Mr. Chiles and Florida by granting Chevron permits just off the coast of Pensacola, seven days before George Bush left office.

The state is considering appealing the U.S. Department of Commerce ruling that favored Chevron. If a foothold exists for that appeal, the state should seize it.

And even if the state cannot make a case for its 100-mile ban, the government should at least be able to keep oil wells out of our world-renowned grass marsh.